Four self-immolate Nuclear triad in place

The London-based human rights group Free Tibet said four Tibetans had set fire to themselves on Wednesday to protest against Chinese rule: three monks, aged 15 and 16, in south-west Sichuan province, and a 23-year-old woman in Qinghai province.

In a draft report to the US Congress, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said Beijing was ''on the cusp of attaining a credible nuclear triad of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and air-dropped nuclear bombs''.

''If we fail to handle [corruption] well, it could prove fatal to the party, and even cause the collapse of the party and the fall of the state.''